1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system and method for reserving resources in a multi-homed environment. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for reserving resources through a plurality of network interfaces using a plurality of Care-of-Addresses (CoAs).
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, the Quality of Service (QoS) of multimedia application services must be guaranteed for a Mobile Node (MN), even during handover in a mobile network.
For the QoS guarantee, the mobile network performs a resource reservation status management. The resource reservation status management is a scheme of reserving certain resources for each session beforehand, to thereby ensure QoS continuously.
Existing protocols proposed for the resource reservation status management includes Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), Extended-RSVP (E-RSVP), Mobile RSVP (MRSVP), RSVP Tunnel, Concatenating and Optimizing Resource Reservation Path (CORP), Hierarchical Mobile RSVP (H-MRSVP), and so forth.
Under a multi-homed environment, the mobile network must be able to choose an optimal path from among a plurality of paths. The multi-homed environment refers to a communication environment in which an MN with a plurality of network interfaces can set up different paths through the network interfaces.
Hence, the mobile network must carry out the resource reservation status management to guarantee QoS under the multi-homed environment. However, the conventional protocols for resource reservation status management commonly do not consider the multi-homed environment.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved resource reservation status management scheme in the mobile network under the multi-homed environment. The resource reservation status management scheme should consider load sharing in a plurality of paths.